Categories and Search Box

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Foscam IP Camera (Part Two)

I have to add an update (already) on the FI8908W that I presented earlier, and this time, there's good news for Linux, Mac and Firefox users! (corresponding firmware for fi8909w-NA and fi8903/04w here)

Since people at Foscam already proved very responsive, I sent them another question about the chances to see some support for non-ActiveX browsers in a future firmware.

While I expected something like "sorry, this is not planned for this product", the actual answer was:
"Here is an updated firmware with server push mode (for Firefox, chrome an such) and also the method to directly intercept the video stream into VLC"...!!!

To the reply was attached a newer firmware 11.14.1.42 and Web UI 2.4.8.11 to replace the original 11.14.1.34 and Web UI 2.4.8.9

After that update, the login page presented an additional login section for the non-ActiveX browsers (Server Push Mode).

The control interface is similar to the operator interface of the ActiveX version presented earlier (no visitor section, so, no sound control and no multi-device support), but this time, it's platform independent!
I only started to play with the new interface today, but here are some possibilities already:

Loading the live view directly: http://ipcam_url/live.htm

Taking a snapshot from the camera (convenient when accessing from a mobile phone):http://ipcam_url/snapshot.cgi

Loading the stream into a media player such as VLC: http://ipcam_url/videostream.asf?user=username&pwd=password

Below is the updated verdict:

Pros:
+ Good set of features
+ Good image quality day and night
+ Responsive technical support+ Platform Independent, Linux friendly, Apple friendly, Mobile Phone...+ Video stream can be intercepted into VLC

Cons:
- UPnP still not usable
- Poor embedded speaker quality

A word of caution about non-Foscam clones and firmware update:
I became aware that some ip cameras exactly similar in look to the fi8908w are using a totally different firmware. Their fw cannot be flashed on Foscam and Foscam fw cannot be flashed on them. This would instantly turn your device into a paperweight.

With recent feedback, it appears that the cameras sold by DealExtreme are not specifically from Foscam. On eBay, it's also a mix and if you are lucky, the seller will show some screenshots of the interface on his page.

If the interface of your camera looks like any of these:

...chances are that you have a camera that is not compatible with Foscam firmware.
Pay also attention to the box appearance when showed by the seller (Foscam box look like this).

So beware, don't try to mix and match, it takes just 10 seconds to brick your toy forever!

333 comments:

Hi my new camera (bought from dealextream) with newest firmware version 43

1)canNOT connect to WPA2 (TKIP+EAS).2)seems to connect wirelessly (LED flashing fast) to my network with WPA EAS, but I can not access to web interface of the camera.3) Eth cable connection has no problem and everything is working fine

I got it working, but the wifi connection is not reliable. I am not sure disabling Upnp helps in this case. When i open the web interface from internet, the camera scrashes and cannot re-eatablish connection.I am using Dlink DI624 router with WPA2 AES encription.

I have purchased an IP CAM and it was working fine in my LAN network and it's IP was shown in IP Camera Tool and I can access to it easily, but after is start updating with firmware 11.14.1.42, it is not shown in IP Camera Tool even when it is connected through the network by wire and the lights were blinking showing that there is a connectivity ? Can somebody help me on that ?

I think that the update was not completed successfully and I have tried to reset it but it is the same ..

@saudIf the camera does not make its initial rotation at startup, then it's bricked.If it does and starts looking for a network, then maybe it changed to a different IP address (should not but maybe). Your router should detect an incoming connection either in the log or the DHCP list.You could also try to run a sniffer like Wireshark to detect any incoming network activity from the camera.Finally if you are sure your camera is a Foscam FI8908w so the firmware was appropriate but flashing went bad, you may try to get it exchanged under the guarantee. Good luck.

Hi everyone, I just bought a cam off ebay and all the markings on it made me believe it was a foscam and it was. I updated the firmware and the web gui and everything went fine. I purchased IP Vision Pro for my IPhone and it now allows you the ability to write your own camera config. I wrote one for the Foscam and had all the pan and tilt functions working. Just putting some finishing touches on it. Once its done and I have tested it I will make it available to who ever may need it. It will only work with IP Vision Pro, it's little pricey, but it's great software.

Just tested it some more and I can pan left-right, tilt up-down, up left, down left and so on. The home button works as well. If anyone wants it let me know. I'm also using the most current firmware, not sure if that makes a difference.

Well I upgraded to the 43 release, which appeared to work fine, but for the life of me I couldn't get the wireless working (WPA basic TKIP), which was odd as it worked without a problem on the base release. It looks like its working from the light, but the web page didn't load.

I downgraded to the 42 release and it worked straight away.

Not conclusive as wireless is a bag of worms at the best of times, but I'll stay on 42, it does the key part of avoiding the active x control.

It's good to know Steve. This 43 release wifi is driving me crazy for the whole week. Right now I have it working, but I am not sure it 'll work after a router or camera reboot. I 'll try it for a few more days and if it is not reliable, I 'll go back 42.

I purchased a camera off eBay thinking it was the same as camera's advertised by other sellers. It came in a white box (not the Foscam red and white box) and a web-interface like the one posted at the top of this thread ('NotFoscam.jpg').

Unfortunately it only connects using WEP, not WPA which was quite a blow for me. Other than that it works great with the latest firmware. The manufacturer is 'MayGion' and their website is (mostly in Chinese):-

@Ale, IE is the only browser working with the ActiveX mode (it only works with ActiveX and doesn't support Push Mode). To hear the audio in ActiveX mode, you must click on the audio icon in the "For Visitor" section(an ugly little icon representing a microphone with a lot of imagination)

Firefox, Chrome, and Opera 10(very bad results with this one!) will only support Server Push Mode. In this mode, there is no multi-device support and no sound support. It is limited to the "For Operator" section of the AX interface.

A way to get the sound outside the IE context is to connect to the camera from VLC player pointing to http://camera_url/videostream.asf

@spouwe kind of established that already in this other page but thanks for confirming.

To stay on the safe side, you should contact the seller to get the manufacturer and, if not Foscam, where to get the latest fw. If he confirms your camera is a Foscam but you brick it with firmwares from here, you'd be rightly entitled to claim a replacement from him under the warranty.

For those do not have wifi at all, please check the link below (from DX forum)-----------------------I bought this camera less than a month, wireless does not work, I decided to open the bottom of the camera, removed the four screws, identified the wireless network card that, the same as a USB adapter, I entered the manufacturer's site?: ( http://products.epro-itx.com/WiFi/WIFI-MODULE-OG.pdf) and identique missing a jumper from pin 6 to ground, making it the wereless the camera work

I was wondering if anyone here has tried using these cameras with OSX? I have an application called EVOCAM that will allow me to connect to IP cameras. There is a generic camera model which in turn looks for a direct link to an MJPEG or JPEG file. It also works using video.cgi on some cameras. Would linking directly to "http://camera_url/videostream.asf" work? Does FOSCAM have public IP's to demo cameras that could play around with to see if this will work?I hope this makes sense... :P

I own a genuine Foscam FI8908W IP camera, I have had it for one week. It is running the latest FW that I had emailed to me straight from tech support at Foscam (versions= 2.4.8.12.bin and lr_cmos_11_14_1_43.bin)

I was viewing some pages internal to my D-Link router only to find that the Foscam is making a huge number of outbound internet connections on many of it's ports. It has made over 100 of these connections on its own, I have not initiated them.

The site that it is connecting to is 75.125.178.178:80. I did a web search to find that this site belongs to THEPLANET.COM INTERNET SERVICES INC.

My Foscam FI8908W LAN IP is 192.168.1.105, here is a typical example of the connection:

@TimDo you use ntp? Maybe it's for the clock sync? It's one of the services hosted on that domain: ntp.theplanet.comI don't use ntp and my firewall is set to be quite restrictive so I don't have that sort of traffic. I will test it. It shouldn't need to be that chatty just to sync the clock.

I ordered this recently from DealExtreme, it came in the red & white box, and it IS running the very latest FWs direct from Foscam, 2.4.8.12.bin and lr_cmos_11_14_1_43.bin. So far this IP camera is working perfectly except for all of the unauthorized outbound connections.

I think this fake one might contain some malware that is making all those connections. I do use NTP, but it is for the local Boulder CO one and I do see just two entries on my router's connections page for the IP camera completing that function.

Any idea on how I block the IP camera from contacting the site mentioned in my previous post on a D-Link router? Else, getting rid of the malware inside of the camera? Thanks.

You can't do unattended video recording. You'd need a PC software to do this. I'm also currently testing the Surveillance Station from Synology DS109 (Network Attached Storage), which can do that as well.

I got mine from Dealextreme, real one Foscam, I think, because firmware update work fine.

Excellent camera by this price!

But 2 questions:

a) ftp do not work, I have try many different servers, but always "server error"?

b) How this external pins 1 and 2 work? I mean I/O Linkage on Alarm. I have connect meter to pins and try to make alarm (and on the page click this releay buttons on/off). Relay make sound, but nothing happends, no power, no connect??(input pins work fine if I connect wire ends)

Hello, I purchased this camera and am testing the software with Dave Selby, the Kmotion2.http://kmotion.euAlready I can see by inserting a url http://192.168.xx/video.cgiBut I can not use the controls and move the camera in any way from kmotion2.Can anyone guide me where is the problem?Thank you

I have this Foscam with the latest firmware installed. But it kept freezing after only a few hours in use. I have to pull the power and re-plug it back it before it would run again. I have to do that every day. That means I could not hang it in a remote local where I could not reach the power supply. It is very useless and frustrating. Does any one else have this kind of problem? Do you have any troubleshooting advice to offer?

@pdxaznFoscam is aware of a problem with their camera disconnecting and are working on a fw update to solve this. The problem is mainly that the camera cannot recover by itself from a disconnection. Some user suggested here that electric appliance such as microwave oven could cause this. Maybe you could check if your disconnection coincide with any device turning on or off ?

@pdxaznThat is the problem I am coping with right now. I thought it was because of my router since most of people here saying that they have the cam working OK.One thing I notice is the cam can NEVER lease an IP from the router.

@TimI was wondering if it could be due to some option activated in the settings, like the clock sync. I don't use it because of the lack of DST support, and I don't have any such outbound connection from any of my 2 Foscam's.

Definitely not the time sync. There is a single entry on the "active sessions" page in my router (one for each of my IP cameras) that shows the time sync connection to the NIST server, all of the other connections (before I blocked them) were to 75.125.178.178:80 at "theplanet.com" in TX. I wish I could post a screen capture photo as it would make it very clear.

The outbound ports the FI8908W is using are in the 42XX range, and it is utilizing TCP.

I have used both the foscam original and the clone (maygion)...one of the drawbacks of the foscam original is that it will NOT work on most mobile phones....does not work on Motorola Q and many other verizon phones whereas the clone has no problem and works on pretty much all the smart phones..so that is definitely a plus..

Received one of these Foscams recently and notice that this cam is very slow at focusing. ie, when one moves a little faster than a normal walk, the picture is very blurred (out of focus). Is this normal for this cam or is mine a dud? Maybe someone has a video from this cam on youtube or something so I can compare?

@tuxthe focus on these cameras is done manually by turning the lens ring, but you maybe mean the frame rate is not good while in "patrol" mode. This depends on different factors: if the camera is connected to Ethernet, the frame rate is acceptable in all cases, but in Wi-Fi, it really is choppy if resolution is higher than 320x240.

@tux and luis: I've recently replaced one of my camera lens by wide angle one: it both improve the sharpness a bit and almost eliminates the need of PTZ because of the much wide field of vision, check this post for details.

Finally, don't forget it's the cheapest wireless PTZ ip cam on the market after all. I think they have better PTZ to be released soon, but the price will certainly be different.

Hi,I have an ebay foscam clone. All was working well until 2 days ago when the vertcial movement(tilt) stopped working. I have 2 cameras and one works fine via internet and LAN, the second..which WAS working fine, now has no Y axis movement. This fault occurs in wored and wireless mode, after a reset etc etc.Any ideas...motors damaged (it hasnt been touched/forced etc).

@phoenixI had a similar problem with a white Foscam where the brackets didn't seems to have enough grip on the camera globe. I sometimes managed to get it working again by (gently) pulling then pushing the brackets so the dented wheels inside where re-aligned. But this is not a durable solution of course and I had it replaced under the warranty.

Hi,Lately I've been getting some wierd things happening with the interface in IE8. After the login page the main operator window will show, sometimes with javascript lines of code at the bottom (and access to the camera doesnt work). Sometimes I have to reload the login page several times before a successful 'operator' screen appears.Its as if the pages dont always load properly. Sometimes after a successful loading, I will switch to 'aministrator' and then THAT page will load with errors and be useless, so I have to again return to the login page. Anyone else having this preoblem.Oh, and the 'undefined' problem described above occurs sometimes too when a page is reloaded. All of these seem intermittent, with no pattern and I just have to keepo reloading the login page and start all over again.

@phoenix,I systematically get IE8 crashing on Windows 7 when entering the administrator settings. I don't have this with IE8 on XP. Maybe there's some security setting to adjust on 7? I didn't investigate much so far as I mostly use the Server Push mode anyway.

@tabarak,eBay item #160375074695 and #170396848810 (use these numbers in eBay search field)These are the two resellers where I got my Foscam cameras from. But ask they first, in case they changed for a cheaper brand since.

@bill,I just tested my Foscam fi8908w: adapter is market and measured as 5v. My transformer is "made in Germany" but I'm not surprised that some Chinese adapters can come with such a fantasist labeling.

Has anyone had cameras disconnecting from wireless point after being up a day or so...I have had this happen on one of my cameras....cure is to unplug and plug it back in...interested to hear if anyone has had this type of problem...and possibly an explanation/cure..

@saud,There is a detailed description in this manual to set it up within the camera.I've left DDNS unset in the camera and defined it in my router instead (I use it with other devices for FTP and HTTPS).For port forwarding, just set the port 80 for both inbound and outbound, the private address being of course the ip cam.

i've just received from dealextreme webcam Device ID 00606E79863A,Device Firmware Version 11.14.1.34 . first day after setup wireless worked fine in all rooms upstairs and downstairs, even in the garden. next day stopped and wireless is working only 2 meters from the router. all my other devices works fine on the distance. what could happened? should i update the firmware? it seems it is real foscam but who knows.

@edion their page, Foscam warns about DX selling fakes. But still, this shouldn't be the cause. I'd rather thing of a device interfering like a wireless baby phone, or camera (non-wifi), a microwave. Maybe changing the wifi channel may help ? Usually ch.11 gives best results.

Can someone help us. We have 3 camera's in the network. But only one will we see in the software. After some reachearch we saw that the Device ID of the 3 camera's are the same. I think dat our network is having some difficulty's with this.

@Erik,That's been reported with clones of Foscam cameras. In this post, there is a document, "serial upgrade instructions.txt" which is part of the recovery files. At the end of this document they explain a command to change the MAC address, "set-mac0 00:11:22:33:55:66". I didn't try this since I don't have that problem, but it could be your solution.

Here is my solution. You need 1 unix or gnu server with Exim or other mail transfer agent that allows message redirects to script through pipe. On this machine you should add some mail alias that causes all e-mails addressed to it to be pushed to some shell script. It is also possible to do it as user, e.g. in .forward file.

In my case the Exim mailer files look like this:

http://pastie.org/787495

You may want to do it in more simple way, just by adding a proper line(s) to your .procmailrc or .forward file.

You will also need some script that is executed when e-mail arrives:

http://pastie.org/787511

Set up some variables there, like SENDER containing sender's e-mail set in camera's panel. It is highly recommened that you'll adapt it to your needs, especially when using the same e-mail account to receive e-mails and to watch alerts from a camera. Consult your MTA's manual to see what are your options to obtain sender of each message processed by script.

For example if you're going to use procmail you may want to set this environment variable by calling SENDER=`formail -xSender:` there, before calling the script.

Also take care about URI used to connect and directory used to store clips. You may set there a length of each recorded clip.

@welshtigersome people managed to get firmware update from Easynp, which is a good thing, see the latest comments below this post. Another that looks quite active on developing fw, is MayGion (sold in white boxes @ dealextreme.com, others red/white boxed are counterfeit Foscam)I don't know how good is the support from the competitors, but I found Foscam customer support very reactive: I obtained updates, CGI documentation and even the method to recover a bricked camera. They also tend to take our comments and bug reports into account (they'll be a bit absent this month because of the Chinese New Year).

If you want recommended shops for Foscam products, they give some on this page.

Thank you Bubbah for the above info, i received my f sries camera today. It was from the seller above so expecting it to be Easynp but not sure how to find this out as i haven't plugged the camera in yet.

I got all the parts and installation cd with details, but being from china ( only 6 days to deliver ) yippee :D

I am wondering if there is an easy or english explanation on setting this camera up.

Their best quote at the bottom of the instructions is:

We are keep working hard !! lol

I understand i have to plug power cable in and turn it on, because i have a wireless router, do i still need to plug in the internet cable (RJ45) from router to camera ?

Then i guess i need to use the approiate software to find the device?

any help much appreciated, i like to make sure before i know what to do before going ahead.

@welshtiger,Actually, all you need is on this blog.Just filter on IP camera tag and you'll find a compatible 3rd party software list, a startup guide, and a IP camera user guide (the one coming with Foscam) in the firmware page (just don't try to load these fw to your camera, they're not compatible).

You do need to plug the Ethernet the first time. My startup guide will give you all the details.

Hi,1.My ISP does not support SMTP without authentication. How can I make mail works?2.Trying to link through FTP to a Linux NAS. I have error:"Test ... FailedCan not access the folder. Please be sure the folder exists and your account is authorized". But both user/pass and folder exitsThank you

@Radu1. If you have an SMTP account with that ISP, just click the box "need authentication" in camera settings and enter your login. If you don't have an account, try any other SMTP from a competitor for instance (Google for "free smtp server"). Once the smtp set up, you can specify any email address as "sender" or "receiver", including Gmail.

2. I have that sometimes with settings that I know are correct. Rebooting the device sometimes help and the test suddenly works after that. Also try from both "ActiveX" and "server push mode". I still suspect that the later does not save properly some settings.

Hi Bubbah,Thank you for reply.1. My ISP does not provide any email account at all. I'm using free web emails like Gmail and GMX. I have tried to configure Gmail using configuration from here: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=13287a) for port 587 I have error like "Test ... Failed The server does not support the authentication mode used by the device"b) I have tested also port 465 and I have error: "Test ... Failed Can not connect to the server"

2. for FTP nothing change. I have same error: "Test ... Failed Can not access the folder. Please be sure the folder exists and your account is authorized"

I have to specify both configurations (mail+ftp) made in Internet Explorer to have ActiveXThank you

@Radu1. the camera does not support SSL so you can't use Gmail SMTP as explained in the FAQ page. You need to find and use one of those free smtp servers around for the smtp, then you can secify wathever gmail or other as sender or receiver.2. try the ftp in windows to ensure that you can access that ftp server you setup from a dos box as well. Again no encryption is supported here, it must be plain ftp

Hi,1. Do you know such a smtp server over the Internet to not require smtp authentication?I have google for 30 min and I did not find such a service2. I have removed authentication at all for ftp server and still same error: "Can not access the folder. Please be sure the folder exists and your account is authorized". I have checked FTP in Windows over Firefox browser ftp://serverIP/ and works perfect without any authentication.Thank you

FTP fixedThe problem is that camera ftp see as root the "home" folderCreate a folder called ftp inside home and in FTP Upload Folder write /ftpIf you write /home/ftp you will got errorI have still error with email because I am not founding any smtp server without authorizationRegards

I need some help.I`ve just started trying to use the camera, but i think it`s broken.When I plug into my net (router), it is just not recognized. The 'IP Camera Tool' stills blank, with no list of cams. If I put arp -a in Command Prompt, there is no new IP.I changed the cable, and tryed in a lot of ways... I can`t see the camera or even its ip. It`s not connected into the net.Does anyone can help me? I don`t know what to do...

Rodrigo Rodrigues:Does the camera rotates on startup and the green led blinks ? That's the normal startup process and the led blinking would indicate that its scanning for a network. If not, no need to test further, it may well be defective.If it does search for a network (see the "faq for ip cameras" on this blog for meaning of blinking rates), then ensure that you do not use MAC filtering on your router. You can also try plugging your camera RJ45 directly to your PC (it's cross-link aware), give your pc a static ip address and start the camera. If the IP camera tool finds it, you'll know it's a problem on your router.Good luck

Hi,Just bought a foscam and i'm trying to set it up to view through the net, ive configured ddns account but when ever i try logging in through the browser it seems to take me too the router rather than the camera. I'm a total noob with this set up and any help or suggestions would be great.

@Christian:You need to setup some port forwarding in the router. Basically it will tell the router to forward any incoming request port 80 to the port 80 a specific ip address (your camera here)of your lan. This is generally done in conjunction of a free Dynamic DNS service like dyndns.com or noip.com that will give you a free dns name and keep in touch with your router to always redirect your url to your current external ip address.The camera manual contains a detailed explanation on that. You can find this manual on this blog in the firmware page.

welshtiger:The purpose of using ddns is to have the router provide its current ip address to the ddns service on regular intervals which in turn associates it to a dns name of your choice. To take a example using DynDNS.com:On DynDNS.com, log in using your account and under My Services > My Hosts, click Add host services.There, choose a hostname and any of the available free domains from the drop box, like myipcam.dnsalias.orgLeave service type as Host with IP addressThen enter your external ip address of the moment. You see it in the string below "Your current location's IP address is ..."That's it for the DynDNS setupNow in your dg834gt router:go to Dynamic DNS menuclick "Use a Dynamic DNS Service"Enter the same hostname, user and password that you used on DynDNS.That will allow the router to log in regularly and update DynDNS with any ip address change.

Finally define some port forwarding in your router so that any incoming request from "outside" coming on port 80 (or other if you decided otherwise), would be redirected to the port 80 of the specific internal ip of the camera(or wathever port defined on the camera)

I just tried to use this Foscam IP camera with my synology Rackstation RS407. I am able to configure it usign the user define camera type, when i click the "test Camra" button, i can see my image.But when I go into live view, no way to see an image (usign Internet explorer).I also configured the recording as permanent but I could not find any recording in my recordign folder.

I just did the same with a Panasonic BL-C10 Netcam and all worked fine.

Yes that was very understandable, i had my camera IP address ( 192.168.### set in DNNS, so have now changed it to my external IP address ( You see it in the string below "Your current location's IP address is ..." )

I got confused because when putting my host name into explorer i thought it had to take me to my ipcamera which it did when using camera ip address. Now i have entered the external ip address, it takes me to my router.

I think i have set the port forwarding correctly in the router, couldnt use port 80 because i was having message saying it was already being used so picked another one.

Am i right in saying, i access my camera from work etc, using the camera's ip address and port number in explorer ? I can access it on my lan without any problems using ip address and port and cant wait to try it from an outside source.

Sorry again for my long post and your detailed explaination as i expect you get loads of questions to answer each day, its a very very useful site and youe explainations and details of how thinmgs work are much easier to understand than any manual.

@welshtiger:Testing your ddns url from inside your lan may give optimistic results. The real test needs to be done from the outside world, or by doing a remote desktop session to a PC that is outside.Also, your network work may have restrictions in place so it wouldn't accept any http traffic on another port than 80. That's my case. I have 3 cameras and port forwarding is set like:external http 80 -> ipcamera1:80external http 82 -> ipcamera2:80external http 84 -> ipcamera3:80but only http://mycamera.dyndns.net:80 can go through while all others work only if using my mobile operator network.

I wont complicate myself with more than 1 camera at the moment lol.I understand that from work, it may have restrictions in place although work was an example. I actually want to view my home from my weekend residence. I have set the port forward in the router correctly i think and cant wait until the weekend to try it.

@Frederic:That's maybe a bug in your version of Surveillance Station.I've tried this on my DS109 (DSM 2.2-0965) and it works fine.My settings are:camera model="user define" and source path=/videostream.cgi

You should ensure that you have the latest firmware (DSM 2.2-0959 for your model). it's available from their Download Center.

Thankyou for your detailed explaination, tried it out at the weekend away from home with dnns host url and port number, logged in and it worked fine, PTZ etc. Next step is to read up on motion detection so it takes a clip or record short video and send it to my email. I have read about another user having Gmail, is this type of account ok because its what i use.

@welshtiger While you can use your gmail address both as "sender" and "receiver", you can't use smtp.gmail.com since the camera does not supports SSL/TLS encryption. You'll have to find a free smtp server like there are many out there. Most don't require any authentication so you don't need to have an actual email account from them. Try your ISP's or mobile operator's smtp.

Hello Bubbah!Pleased to meet you! I have some problem,you see i discovered i have gbbought some clone cameras, they must be..They have the original box, but... Now i have a customer and hes camera doesent make the horizontal patrol when it starts up. He couldent rotate it at all, just upp and down. it must be damaged i guess.Are those cameras worthless, i meaan those are not original..

@SWED.MIKEHello, I must say that I had an similar incident with a white Foscam in the past and had to return it (a shiny white plastic version where the plastic casing was too soft to keep the grip on the camera ball,...err... sphere), so I don't think the physical quality of the camera varies much between Foscam and clones. The more annoying problem with some fakes is that they managed to have all the same MAC for Wifi, and many were reported to have Wifi antenna badly connected to the inside PCB.To find out for sure if it's a Foscam, you should email them with the DeviceID of the camera. They always reply.

Hello Bubbah!!I thank you for the answer my friend!!! I ask the seller where the cameras come from and she said: foxcam?? ...And i said: with foscam box, there was no reply. And now another friend ask me if i know why the sound doesent work..only if he streamed it With vlc it was possible..Sorry for my bad spelling.

@SWED.MIKE:Hi Mike, the sound works as well from the ActiveX interface under IE, but you need to press one of those tiny icons ont the screen.If you use the "Push server" mode, then it's normal that you only have the video streaming available.

Hi friends,I have problem with the ip cam wi-fi FOSCAM.I tryed to use it in wi-fi mode but don't work,or better...the green led blink fast so that's connected,but with the tool "ipcamera tool" it is not rileved and if i try to digit the address in internet bar is not finded.In my router the ip don't exist.So what can i do? I need that's work in WI-FI ( With ethernet is OK)...Help me...Thanks !

Hi,Paillassouif you mind "Using Wireless Lan"...yes is enable. But the cam don't work in wi-fi.This is my second cam,with the first i had not problem.The different was just the firmware older for the first but GOOD WORKER.

Hi,FRIENDSI found the solution of the problem.Was me...i confused the type of encryption ( I'm using WEP encryptin) i choose hex but the right was ASCII.The strange thing was, that the cam connected but the tool "IP CAM TOOL"don't detect it like the router.Thanks to everybody!Came to visit Sicily...I can give you Bed and Breackfast in Noto.If you are interesed i can post the link of my webpage.Bye

Hi please helpWhen I hook up my foscam ip cam with the ethernet cable all works fine but when I try to do it with wifi the ip camera tool is blank and the green led is blinking slow like it is searching for the network, I am using a router provided by verizon fios and dont know much about it or were to find the info on it can some one help me . thanks

@troy,You should check this post to ensure you follow the right setup procedure. For the Verizon router, I can't help much, but just check that it's broadcast mode is enabled, and that MAC filtering is off.

@sanchoaugust: Foscam keeps a list of sellers on their contact page. You can find them also by typing "Foscam" in the eBay search field. Some even display a certificate to prove the origin.The embedded ActiveX interface is capable of beeping on motion detection while it saves snapshots. There is also a post on this blog with 3rd party software working with this camera. They offer more flexibility.

Hello, can somebody tell me, where I can download the green Web UI (another clone, no Foscam, no Easynp) in english or multilanguage? I bought my camera from Pearl in Germany and installed their latest gui (the green one) which is in german only. Thank you!Nick

Hello Bubbah,thank you for your support! I contacted Pearl about 1 week ago but got no feedback yet.I also tried to find out who's the manufacturer of the camera - an impossible mission. There seem to be dozens clones with the green UI but none of the chinese companies has the file, I probably didn't find the "real" manufacturer yet. Any hint is appreciated.

We are listed as official U.S. Foscam distributors on the manufacturer's website at foscam.com under the "Contact Us" page. We sell genuine Foscam indoor and outdoor wireless ip cameras and all our products ship from New York City. Our ebay store's name is Ravat-Trading-Store. Look us up. We actually have a special on right now that is going to last for the next 2 hours. However, if you send me a message saying you saw my offer on gadgetvicims then I will give you the special even after the time limit is up. Goodluck and have a great day (Winter is finally over in NY thank heaven)

The problem was with my DSL modem. I called my provider and he had me bridge the modem and it worked fine after that. Pretty mice camera I setup the email notification and alerts and also downloaded Mobiscope to my Balckberry.

I have two of these, genuine ones. One works fine, the other stops responding after a day or two and needs to be power cycled. This faulty one is actually a replacement for another one I had which had a different problem. From reading the posts above, it seems other people have seen unreliable behaviour from these webcams. They also don't see colour very well. They are very cheap.

I have received and setup my second camera and all works fine, easy when you have had help setting up the first one. ( thanks bubbah )

Contacted the ebay seller goodstore-2010 to find out what actual make it is as it didn't come in its original box and i managed to get it for £36.99 :D

The question i have is: I have setup the camera exactly the same as the first although of course the ip address and port forward is different. I access the first from outside source using ( http://****.dyndns.org:**** )To access the second camera i just change the different port forwarding address at the end which is already setup in router.

thanks

If that works, because i wont be able to try it until the weekend, then i'll setup the second camera in multi device which i have already tried with success over their lan address.

Whats the main difference is that the unknown make of camera has the better quality pictures and seems to be zoomed in more than my first easynp camera.BOTH cameras are side by side in the screen shots

Hello everyone, having trawled the web for days to be able to use my IP Camera remotely, now I'm more discouraged for not having yet figured out how to do, I put my last hope in your help and your experience, hoping to find someone who can help me solve the problem.

I state that I have:

-connected My-ip-cam to my modem / router (a Netgear dgn3500);-Assigned to the cam a static lan-ip-address ;-Opened a port suitable for IP-cam on the firewall of the router -registered An account on dyndns.org

then, I also say that opening any browser from any PC / laptop / netbook connected to my LAN and typing in the IP-Camera LAN (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: port) I've got regular access without any problems.

instead The problems come when I try to connect remotely.In fact if I try to type the IP address assigned to me by dyndns.org (xxxxxxxxxxx.dyndns.org: port) despite having tried different browsers, I can not get access to anything (out error page that says:"Time out connection

Xxxxxxxxxx.dyndns.org the server is taking too long to respond.

* The site could be unavailable or overloaded. Please try again a few moments.

* If you can not load any pages, check your computer's network connection.

* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox has permission to access the web. "

The same result (unfortunately) I get when I try to type directly the Public IP-address in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: port

but if I try to type the IP address assigned to me by dyndns.org (using xxxxxxxxxxx.dyndns.org) without specifying the port, even trying with various browsers, I can still only access the router (exactly the same way that if entered address 192.168.0.1 by a PC connected to the LAN )

and if I directly enter my-public IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx), without indicating any door, instead of typing the ip assigned to me by dyndns.org, I get the same result.

At this point I'm really mad. What am I doing wrong??It seems absurd that there shouldn't be a method to gain access to a remote IP Camera. But most 'likely reality (I hope) is that there are steps that a total ignoramus like myself, have repeatedly escaped.

I correct myself:Yesterday I did a test from home of a friend with his computer and tried to access my Public IP as entering the browser 'public IP and port (yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy: port) as enter the host of DynDNS and port (nomehost.dyndns.org: port) but in both the ways I could not access anything (as it happened by my home PC).

Then I tried to log in by entering in the browser just the public IP (yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy) as by entering just the HOST DynDNS (nomehost.dyndns.org) but if working this way from home I could at least access the router (and only to the router), instead working this way from my neighbor's computer I haven't been able to access anything.

Now I'm wondering what else I'm wrong??.. I think that I followed all the instructions of the manual (see the link at "http://www.foscam.com/down/FI890108-09-04-28_user_guide_4.1.1.rar")

Please can you help me in setting the camera and router to access the camera remotely (from another computer, phone, etc. ..)?

Hope you can give me an indication what could cause these problems.Dear all,

Hope someone can give help me abit on this please.

Recently I purchased one of these IP camera model Foscam FI8908W, I'm quite please with it, I have the latest F/W from their site, it was shipped with it.

1. I noticed that indoor the quality is quite clear & sharp but when I direct it to outside the picture becomes overexposed (white pic)rendering the camera useless. Does it have exposure settings? if not could it be its Light sensitive resistor? However I can confirm that its working in dark & when enough light can see the red light of the LEDS go faint out.

2. WIFI seems to be very unstable & in the same room of wireless router. Sometimes you have to switch it Off / ON again or it looses connection. This is really weird ! :(

Pilotair:1. There are 3 exposure settings. Your choices are 50hz, 60hz, & Outdoor. You will find them right below the camera movement controls. If you are aiming the FI8908 out a window, you need to have the thing nearly touching the glass so you don't get (as much) glare. The light glare on/from the glass will severally limit your viewing. No matter what, once your IR lights come on you will have no picture at all from the light reflection.

2. As far as wifi is concerned my camera is on the 1st floor of my home and the wifi router is on the 2nd (So about 50-75 ft away). Have yet to have a problem with connectivity. Could be your camera or the antenna not screwed in tightly. As a fail safe you could ad a simple electrical timer to the camera and have it switch power on/off let say every 6hrs so you don't have to manually do it.

Re exposure ~I managed to set as outdoor & its superb now. As you have said forget it when the night falls if trying to view behind a glass, u actually need to disable the IR. Perhaps FOSCAM might incl that with some other bug fixes for us in the near future :P

Re Wireless it seems to be very short range.. there's only a room & it plays alot, was thinking of installing a WIFI 1Watt amplifier to extend the rage abit more, however do note that the antenna connector is Female rather than Male where as the standard antennas are the opposite, so you need to put some sort of a bridge between the inner hole int the connector of the camera when using a different antenna.

Camera sometimes needs to be reset ON/OFF 2/3times before actually connect in wireless, that seems to be a huge drawback. To install a timer might be a good idea though but as i said sometimes it needs 3x reset. Still testing it...will try the sensor, & smtp features in the coming days.

If you install the camera just behind a glass, by night the glass will be like a mirror and because of the IR led the picture will be just white (or extremely bright but impossible to see anything).

The best way is to unscrew the front ring of the camera and disconnect the IR Led ring pcb. In this way the IR Leds won't disturb the picture and you can find on ebay IR projector that you can install where ever you want.

I noticed that if the wifi connection is too weak, the camera disconnects very easily or do not connect to the router. I solved this problem just by replacing the antennas.Adding a repeater will divide by 2 the bandwidth of your router but it will work (I tried this before replacing my antennas).

I didn't have any problem to find other antennas with the same connector, without using any adaptor. Here in Europe it's quite common.

Good Morning, like Dada, I can not get a list of wireless networks after i clicked SCAN function.. The list appears empty. And im sure there are networks available.I clicked Scan Button a lot of time but nothing... Please someone can post a tutorial to resolve this problem ? Thank U.

I have a Foscam FI8908W camera, and having troubles with the auto iris of it.When i turn the cam and it sees a bright light it dims, but turning it back to a darker item it does not brightening it.I then have to change in the software the resolution for and back to get it working again.Tried different brightness/contrast setting, but with no luck.Also tried different modes.(outdoor/50/60 HZ).

@HI've been struggling with the same problem, especially in rooms with lots of windows and bright sunshine outside. If the camera is set to outdoor, then the inside is too dark, and 50/60Hz will almost blind it.I think the problem got worse for me since I changed the lens in one of them. For the purple color, it's a know problem. Foscam said that they fit a better filter in the latest production but I can't say, mines are quite old.

My fi8908w is looking trough the window. At night I see a bright white light possible the reflection of the IR in the window. Any idea how to resolve this? Or is there a solution to use it outside in some sort of casing also at night?

@jurjenYou'd have only 2 options: cover the led ring with tape and have some (PIR) flood light outside, so the camera can still see something at night, or buy a FI8904W which is an outdoor model (no PTZ but all the same specs as the FI8908W otherwise). Outdoor casing exist but they cost almost the price of the camera.

@jurjenthat would be something like this. You will have the same problem with the leds.There's a post on this blog on how to replace the fi8904w lens with a wide angle. That would be a cheaper solution to overcome the absence of ptz.

Hello Bubbah!!I have a problem with my cams, i couldent access them from another pc outside my lan, i only see one cam in the UI. Is it possible to see them all at the same time like i doo at home? i have tried ewerything....

For connecting to WPA it has to be tkip no special characters and do not use a long password keep it to less than 25 characters and you should be ok. I had the same problem password was over 60 characters and contained special characters like _ ( ?£ did not work. also you may want to set up the router close to router then move it further away to see if you loose connection mine had a lose antenna connection.

Hi I have 2 cameras one is genuine and the other is a clone. I didn't know this until i updated the firmware. The clone is semi working now. I noticed on one of your posts you mentioned that you have some information on how to recover from a bad flash please could you share this information :-)

@ritlinteethYou'll find all the info I have in the post title "bring your paperweight back to life", but the recovery files provided are only for Foscam cameras. Luckily, there's been reports of recovery success on a clone identified as IP607 with specific recovery files, see the latest comment from "Admin" on that post. The key is really to identify your clone to ensure you can use the recovery files.

Hello, I'm new here and found this while searching for IP cameras. My requirement is for an outdoor PTZ camera located under an eve. It won't be getting direct rain with the eve over it. It might get some splash from the wind but overall should stay dry. How does the FI8908W fare outdoors? The FI8904W is ok but doesn't have PTZ.

I'm also looking at the Panasonic line of IP cameras. They have a non-PTZ outdoor with POE for a reasonable price. Their PTZ goes way up in price though. Anyone have experience comparing Panasonic with Foscam?

@chefI think the fi8904 would soon end up rusting inside with the humidity. There are sone enclosures available on eBay but they cost roughly the price of the camera. So the fi8904w is still the best choice for outdoor. You could still replace the lens by a wide angle, that would minimize the need of a ptz, there's a post about it here.

For some of you who asked about the i/o port connections, pins 1 and 2 are controlled by the relay. If you click on the chain icon in the operator device control the normally open contacts of pins 1 and 2 will close until you click on the break-chain icon. This is contrary to the user manual which states that pin 1 and 2 output 5V. Not true. These pins are merely switched open and closed through the relay. This way you can directly control an external device from the device control webpage.

Hello,I have a Foscam FI8908W camera and I'm facing some troubles :When I configure alarm, I sometimes get email (normal way), but sometimes, even if there's someone at home and alarm's working, no emails are sent (or at least, received)...By the way, I've noticed that when the camera is linked to the network (wired), It blocks my emails : (ISP servers refuse connection)...To get back my emails, I have to close my email client for a while, or reboot my pc, or reboot my DSL modem...Does anyone have a solution? (I precise that I faced the same troubles with the Heden version of this camera...).Thanks.

@Mickaelthat's the first time I hear of such a problem. Maybe there's something the camera doesn't handle well in your login (accent, symbol?), or the camera is somehow too chatty for the mail server. The best way to find out what's wrong would be to "sniff" it: Hook the camera to the ethernet, and run Wireshark while triggering an alarm. By analysing the captured traffic, you may find what's wrong.

@Mickael It sounds suspiciously like a port config problem.I have mine setup to email me and even while I'm readingmy Email I can get new arriving messages from the Camera. Port-forwarding sounds like a good place to look but thenagain, I'm easily misdirected myself.

I do know that the camera doesn't get all too "chatty"in its email sending. It does send 6 Jpeg's worth ofimages in base64 encoding... wait - maybe that *is* chatty.That many images uses about 200K or so. Ok. Forget I saidanything about that ;-)

BUT - if it works one time and not another... that itblocks your emails when wired... it sounds like a configproblem. Camera-Config, Router-Config, Firewall-config,Windows etc...

If this happened to me then the first things I'd look to would be:

1) a fixed IP address (so it doesn't change every time youmake a test run of Email, power off, reboot whatever).

2) Is port 25 forwarded to the camera? Or is the routerblocking it or redirecting it to another IP (or... another MAC address, if the router is configured toaccept "devices" that way. Its Wireless MAC is different fromits Wired MAC).

3) I do need to use the PASV mode since the camera is behind a firewall. Network (LAN) Email doesn't need it.

Try the camera's Email Config page. Make any changesyou may want to try (and do a REFRESH, of course) thenclick that [TEST] button. It does indeed work. I use ita lot! It sends a very non-chatty plain-text Email.

Hello Bubbah and W.David, and many thanks for your answers.To precise something : yesterday, I received (at work) alarm notification because of the changing light (clouds and sun).But, when i got home, I let the camera on a few minutes and start my computer to check my emails : nothing! No alarm notification!But maybe if I forward port 25 to my camera, it can solve this?(Fixed IP : ok)...what is tricky, is un-continuous failure...If it permanently fail : quite easier to understand why...Anyway, i'll try the 25 port forwarding this afternoon...hope it works...;-)

I recently purchased a Foscam clone from dealextreme and after a friend who purchased the same product (white clone VNT6656G6A40, red and white box) successfully upgraded to the latest firmware (system 11.14.2.17 + Web UI 2.4.8.14) I decided to give it a go.

The firmware upgraded fine, and the camera still performs its start up rotation, and grabs an IP address from my router. The problem is that when I go into IP Camera Tools and click the upgrade Web UI button it says:'Error file of Web UI!'Ive tried downgrading the firmware and the Web UI, but the camera then gives:'Refused by camera!'

When I access the camera directly through its IP address it just has 404 file not found.

Hi Guys, Just a quick question.I recently bought and set up my new foscam with no problems.about a week ago we had a power blackout and since then I can't seem to reconnect. Do I need to reconfigure all the settings? They havn't changed since I set it up the first time.